Answer:
fingerprints do not change over time, but there is a catch: they do not change as we grow old, but they can be affected by certain external conditions. A person’s fingerprints usually form in the 17th week of pregnancy. These prints are set in stone before we are even born. As a person grows, the prints get bigger while retaining the same pattern. Essentially, the prints just scale up gradually. Although fingerprints do not change with age, it can be more difficult to capture them in older people. This is because the skin loses elasticity with age, and the patterns become less prominent, especially due to the thickening of ridges and furrows. Construction workers, especially bricklayers and people who often wash dishes by hand, lose some details in their fingerprints. Once they stop these activities, the ridges will grow back. People who work with chemicals such as calcium oxide can also lose some of the details in their fingerprints. However, once such activities are stopped, the worn-out patterns tend to grow back over time. In other words, even in such cases, the change in the appearance of fingerprints is only temporary. Certain skin diseases destroy the dermis and epidermis of the skin. Consequently, it becomes challenging for fingerprint recognition systems to recognize the prints of these individuals. Adermatoglyphia is a sporadic genetic disorder that causes a person to have no fingerprints. People with this disorder have completely smooth fingertips, palms, toes, and soles. In rare cases, cancer treatment can also cause you to lose your fingerprints. In 2008, a Singaporean man was detained at an airport for a routine fingerprint scan. However, it turned out that he had none. He was on chemotherapy to keep cancer in his head and neck in check. As it turns out, a drug called capecitabine had given him a moderate case of something known as hand-foot syndrome, which can cause swelling, pain, and peeling on the palms and soles of the feet – and apparently the loss of fingerprints.
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